kuzdu

OOMMGG

My new tranny is amazing, flawless you cannot feel any shifts at ALL, acceleration is great no lag highway power is amazing I cannot believe it. The old tranny was indeed 100000 percent bad. This car is fun to drive now and this is how it should be. Guys keep trying with the dealer and ACR once they approve the replacement it will run awsome. To me it's a totally different car.

KeithL

I will say the A4 is appealing, although the current gen A4 has not been very reliable. If Acura does not get the TLX sorted out by time my lease is up, I will ba back with Acura or Infiniti.

youngTL

This is great news! I'm really happy for you! It totally changes how you view the car doesn't it? The 2016 transmission is just SO much better. That's why I waited to get a 2016 TLX and do not regret waiting at all (I never, ever buy 1st year model cars from *any* manufacturer - and this just reinforces it even more).

I maintain that there's nothing really wrong with using the 9AT in this car, it's just that HOW they implemented it in 2015 sucked, and that beta-test implementation cost them a lot of loyal customers. This is totally a management problem. Engineering fucks up sometimes, but when they do, management is supposed to deal with it better. They should have done more testing before rolling out this transmission, and if not, they should have replaced the 2015 owners who had problems without fighting them every step of the way. That's the real problem. I am hoping their new CEO can take out some of the rotten management. In fact, if I were you guys, I would write a letter to him about how bad ACR dropped the ball.

If I had a defective 2015, I'd have been happy if they replaced the transmission with the 2016 one with a "Sorry, it's not supposed to do that, let's get you the replacement!" instead of "That's normal, nothing is wrong with it", and I suspect a lot of actual 2015 owners feel the same and might have forgiven Acura if they handled it like that instead.

I really am loving my 2016 TLX. So far it's the best car I've ever owned (even better than my 2007 Type-S in my opinion!).

kuzdu

Yes the car is so much better its night and day it feels smoother and more responsive than my 4g Tl. Its the tranny no software issue will fix this even the dealer said that. The 9 speed is actually good I can't tell there are 9 Gears at all. I really hope Acura corrects this for everyone and keeps them happy. Now it's time for my light weight crank pulley install :-)

weather

Maybe they are installing the 6 speed into the 2016 and the reason you can't tell that there are 9 gears *lol*

Seriously though, it is encouraging to see that these new units appear to be significantly better.

Rocketsfan

Sadly, some of us have driven TLX's with good transmissions unlike the ones that they refuse to replace on ours. Instead, Acura refuses to acknowledge problems for some reason and instead, in some cases, just says "it's normal". It's bizarre. ACR is generally useless in this matter. When the dealership says it's normal, but that it's Acura that won't replace it, then Acura says the dealership says it's normal, so there's nothing to replace, you can see a maniacal game being played.

Congrats on your tranny just the same. I'm sure your old one was "normal", too... just like the new one.

Mike_TX

Some of you seem annoyed and puzzled as to why Acura doesn't just replace all the transmissions in 2015 TLX's.

Seriously?

Considering sales of about 50,000 2015's, and for discussion's sake assuming half of them are 9-speeds, that's 25,000 cars.

At about $5,000 a pop to replace one of these transmissions, that's $12,500,000.

Something tells me the Acura Division of Honda Motor Company would choke up blood if they had to take a 12 million dollar hickey.

Just sayin'.

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youngTL

No, but they should replace the worst of them, or the people who have to go in multiple times. Some owners have it REALLY bad, and some are just minor. I have a 2016 so haven't got skin in that game much, but I think as a company it would be the right thing to do for those who are frustrated with or unhappy with the transmissions (which should be a small percentage of owners, maybe 5-10%?)

rgpolson

The difference between the transmission in my 2015 and my 2016 is night and day. Even with that said I would still not say the 2016 is a good transmission and absolutely not a great transmission.

I still experience two issues:
1) Rolling stop. If you do not stop for a good 2 seconds the car will sometimes decide it really shouldn't be in 2nd when you hit the gas and then harshly shift into first before accelerating
2) The downshifts are still not good. The transmission seems to do a "ok, uh, does he really mean this burst of acceleration or it he just kidding, should I downshift, should I downshift...ok, I guess I better". And at speed the downshift from 8 or 9 to 4 just take way too long still.

I could not live with the 2015 transmission. I can live with this 2016 transmission, but it is still a work in progress.

jswift2000

I would see the $12.5 million as a small price to pay for customer loyalty.

CheeseyPoofs McNut

I suspect the total would be much less than $12.5 million. The percentage who are in need is certainly not 100% of those who purchased the car.

That said - I read Acura is going to run a commercial during the first quarter of the upcoming Super Bowl. A 30 second spot is going for a cool 5 million - I wonder if that money wouldn't have been better spent elsewhere for Acura...

Vlke

So I made a post on Acura's Facebook page last as week and the same ACR that called me about the post. Long story short, he finally agreed to bring in a field rep to test drive the car with me. He told me that if the field rep says the car is working fine, then there's nothing else that can be done and my case will be closed. What I'm a little worried is that the shifting is usually worst when the car has not been warmed up. When it's warmed up, then the shifts are better majority of the time but you can still notice it. By the time I drive to my dealership, the car is going to be all nice and warm....I'm also going to write down questions I would like the field rep to answer. If anyone has a good question let me know!

rgpolson

Make rep ride with you in your car then go thru same ride in a 2016. If you use the paddle shifters in sport+ you can easily demonstrate super bad behavior of 2015 vs. better behavior in 2016. Let rep try and tell you that the two models behave the same.

Vlke

See the thing is.. last few days when the car warms up, I can tell when the car is about to switch the gear 3. There's definitely hesitation but when it does switch, the roughness varies so I'm worried the rep will just claim that it's normal. The rough shifts in general is also random.

rgpolson

Try using paddles in sport+ and doing the 2-3 shift at between 3k and 3.5k RPM. Mine would reproduce the hard shift every time using that method.

weather

Vlke....Why don't you leave your TLX at the dealership overnight and arrange to get a loaner or if you have a second car, head there with your 2nd vehicle and let the TLX be driven cold.

kchemist

I also have the same issue, when the car warms up it shift smoothly. Using paddle shifters and rev 3-3.5 k to shift in sport + mode would not fly through. Because even good transmission would do a very rough shift under those conditions. I tried this in my Mercedes it also shifts rough in this way.

Vlke

I tried the sports + method. Even then it's not 100%...I can feel the hesitation but sometimes the bump is minor.

Vlke

That's true I guess.

kchemist

I am very interested in your case, my car has the same behavior.

rgpolson

I had thought about the same thing with my 2015 before I got tired of the run around.

My car was at the dealer for 8 days and they spent multiple days with tech-line working on the issue and trying different updates and sequences. When I got the car back the warm performance was slightly better (although not good enough), but the cold performance was absolutely horrible.

So this is definitely worth a try. But you will likely get the line: "well, it just happens when the car is cold. No big deal."

Good luck. Keep us updated.

tmitch2315

Honda will not pay for the Transmissions ZF will. Every single replaced transmission is boxed up and sent back to the manufacture and the cost, most likely including labor, is charged back to ZF.

1Louder

Quantity is no excuse for selling us broken cars and not fixing them. And I agree with other posts that they do not need to fix all of them. They just need to address the intersection of the cars that are really bad and the owners who notice/care. I mean they'd kill 90% of the bad press on the internet by just replacing the 10-12 cars owned by the people in this thread alone.

neil0311

I've had my TLX (V6 AWD) for about 2 months and 1,500 miles. I've opened a case with ACR but honestly, since the last software update and TCU reprogram, the issue has been very slight. The hard shifts from 2-3 gear still exist, but they're intermittant and transient.

I can see the dealer pushing back more now than they did when they did the 15-040 TSB. Is the tranny prefect, no, but not sure replacement is warranted, especially if another software update will refine things further.

Not sure I want to give a new car to the dealer to rip apart when I have 6 years and 70K miles to see if the issue gets worse.

1Louder

Glad your car isn't too bad, but keep in mind that if you've had yours for two months it stands to reason your car was built in Aug or Sept. I can't get Acura to admit it, but based on the user experience here Acura seemed to make a change at some point between Feb and June that made this issue better (meaning a hardware change in the transmission, not a SW update). Those of us that have Oct 14 - Jan 15 build dates seem to have a much more noticeable problem than the later cars. 2016's seem to be great, but also seem to have another transmission as well.

So really the problem space for Acura is only the early-build cars, not all of them. But here is what Acrua will do (and is currently doing) - since they made it better somewhere in 15, and the 16's are good, those of us with early build issues are going to be downed out by the noise of "my transmission is great" coming from the more recent buyers. We're already starting to fade into the background noise.

le^2

Feb '15 build here, transmission is absolute garbage.

rgpolson

I feel sorry for the unsuspecting person that buys my 2015 from the dealer as a "certified pre-owned" Acura. I've been tempted to post a "buyer beware" sign on the windshield.

neil0311

My car was actually built in Sept of 2014, not 2015. It had been a floor display at a dealer in Savannah, GA and had 300 miles when I bought it, 250 of which was the dealer transfer to Atlanta.

My VIN is one of the first 250 SH-AWD vehicles produced.

ATXTLX

A coworker of mine bought a certified preowned 2015 TLX and found out after his first service visit that the dealership had replaced the tranny before he bought it. There is a good chance they are being replaced prior to resale.

hwolfie

2015 TLX V6 Tech - Same problem. Very hard shift 2-3, all the others gears is smooth shifting.

I got a 2016 TLX V6 loaner while they check on the transmission.The loaner is smooth shifting in all the gears. That hard shift is not normal.

I am also having a problem with steering wheel vibration at certain speeds. The loaner does not exhibit that vibration neither.

Judging from all the postings for the hard shift and steering wheel vibration something is wrong with some of the transmissions.

Rocketsfan

Don't be puzzled. People aren't naïve. Many are more pissed than puzzled. Common sense dictates that when people are pissed that Acura allowed a crappy transmission to be put in a car, it's usually their own car they're pissed about. I'm sure I don't need to explain that.

Why should I care what it would cost Acura to fix their mistakes? That's their problem. This is like saying companies that royally screw up shouldn't be expected to fix their screw-ups because it may hurt them. Wut?

Volkswagen shouldn't be expected to have to pay for their lying about emissions ... it may hurt their bottom line.
Toyota shouldn't have be expected to address the alleged issues with unintended acceleration... it may hurt their profits.
Takata airbags shouldn't have to be recalled... it could financially damage the company!
Oh Lehman Brothers, where art thou? How could you let them die for their mistakes - they're a 150 year old company!

Pfftt... when rationalizing why I may be getting the short end of the stick, the last thing I'm worried about is the big corporation that's trying to stick me in the end.

Mike_TX

Do you know that for a fact?

Several manufacturers use that tranny, and every one of them modifyit, either with hardware or software. And in some applications, it works fine.

I could be wrong, but there's no hard evidence the transmission as it comes from ZF is defective. It appears to be a function of what Acura, Jeep and others do with it when they get it.

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Mike_TX

I'm not saying a company shouldn't be made to pay for a product that causes injury or financial loss. Comparing it to Takata and Toyota unintended acceleration, etc., is ridiculous - this shift issue hasn't injured anyone except to hurt their feelings.

My post was just to say that it's understandable why Acura isn't just willy-nilly replacing expensive transmissions because people don't like them.

Look - I don't care for the hard shift either, but the transmission DOES work ... it moves the car down the road like it's supposed to, and helps deliver excellent mileage. People want a silky smooth shift, but that's just icing on the cake. Nowhere is it written that a transmission HAS to deliver buttery shifts. But we're so spoiled that we expect everything to be perfect.

Maybe some of you have a worse problem than I've seen, but I think most have allowed this glitch to become a major problem in their minds that is ruining their enjoyment of the car. If that's the case, trade it, take your losses and get something you like better.

1Louder

I think Acura's position is explainable. It's not understandable in the sense I have any sympathy for what they did. They are actively screwing us over.

I didn't pay $44,000 for a glitch. That's why it's a problem. And I shouldn't have to lose another $4K+ to change cars. If this were a $20,000 base model Kia then sure, my expectation would be "moves the car down the road". But Acura markets this car as a performance luxury sedan competitive with an A4 or a 3-series. The bar is higher. And what they fielded was a car that cannot be practically operated using the paddle shifters at all, and has a 2-3 shift - in contrast to how the other eight shifts operate - is nothing short of awful. The transmission's own flawless shifting performance from 3-4 on up is the very thing that highlights how bad the 1-2 and 2-3 shifts are.

Yes in the world of problems it's not a big problem. It's not like the car can't run. But you don't pay this kind of premium for this kind of performance, and that (for me) is the source of disappointment.

hwolfie

It is a problem and not all Acura TLX V6 do it. For example, I have a 2016 TLX V6 loaner right now that all the shifts is silky smooth and the steering wheel does not vibrate at selected speed. For those having these problem, like myself, it is not supposed to work that way. It is just a bad batch of transmissions that are not working as they are supposed to.

Mike_TX

I'm not arguing, but I've never had a car that DIDN'T have some kind of glitch. And I've had some nice cars - 2 different Lexus LS400's, a Lexus LS460, a Lexus RX300 and an IS350, a BMW 740i and 3 different 540i's, 2 different Cadillac STS's, an Infiniti M56, 2 different Acura RL's, an MDX and an RDX, and on and on.

Every single one of them had something about it that wasn't "right". I guess maybe I'm too much of a perfectionist, but over the years I've learned to accept some things because I'm an old guy now and I don't think the perfect car is going to ever be made.

And all in all, the TLX has a lot going for it, so I'm going to run with it until I'm ready to try something else. Maybe an Audi next time.

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1Louder

All fair points. I guess I'm a bit bent because this is the most expensive car I've bought to date - it was a bit of a stretch for me and I had high expectations. My 3 other Acuras have been relatively issue free. And I can understand if that "something" that isn't right is in another part of the car it might be easier to overlook, but I hit this shift 30+ times a day commuting to work.

But really at the end of the day, the only thing to do is vote with your wallet.

Rocketsfan

But this is just what I'm arguing. Why does having to take responsibility only come in extreme cases? Does someone have to die before it's Honda/Acura's fault? Is that the only scenario where someone has to pay? All Volkswagen did was fib a little, right? This isn't like no one at Acura knew this tranny was a dud when it left the factory. At least if it was something that happens years down the road, I could forgive them.

And all I said in response is that we aren't naïve. We understand that. I understand Acura doesn't want to pay for their own screw-up and are looking for ways to minimize their losses. It's understandable. I'm just saying ... it's wrong.

On at least 3 occasions, the car failed to accelerate from a dead stop when I pressed the gas. I lifted my foot off the pedal and pushed down again and it accelerated normally. On one of those occasions I was trying to cross a busy street and could've gotten t-boned because of the delayed response. On another of those occasions I nearly accelerated into my fence because I pushed the accelerator down further thinking I hadn't pushed it enough. That's not what I call "working". I can put up with the clunky transmission -- apparently I have to, but I would not call every situation an example of how the transmission "does work". Not to mention, I've driven a TLX in which the transmission DOES work as intended, at least as far as that day I had it, anyway.

Hell, no. That's exactly what Acura wants. I think I've convinced 2 people not to buy a TLX. I'll keep singing Acura's "praises" while I own this car. I don't buy cars every 3 or 4 years. I pay cash for them and drive them until the proverbial wheels fall off. This will probably be the first car I get rid of "far too early", but it won't be for another few years until the warranty is up.

After being a fan of this company and waiting years for this car to be released (through delays -- wonder what that big delay was about? hmmm...), only to get stiff-armed and being provided every stupid nonsensical excuse as to why the transmission is "normal"? Then to have idiot dealerships act like beggars asking me to choose all the options "on the right side of the survey" because they want to get good grades? lol.

If people here "just go buy another car", this forum is no different than many of the Caddy forums I used to frequent. Wheels flying off the car, dragging mufflers, seats flying out the window (ok, I'm exaggerating) and people acting like "eh, whatever... I'll be out of this lease in another couple of years". Honda/Acura was supposed to be about reliability or at least backing up their cars. Obviously they're not doing that for everybody and that's what got me pissed. For some of us, all we get is Precision Crafted BS from dealerships and corporate with each pointing the finger at the other saying "it's their fault".

In all fairness, the transmission post-a-myriad-of-software-updates shifts better now, but no, it doesn't shift like a properly functioning TLX transmission. It's gone from "weird shifting" to "unbearable shifting" to "well, it's improved" status. Go Acura.

Anywho, didn't mean to get on anybody's nerves with the post. I'll let everyone get back to discussing the hard shifting normal transmissions.

rgpolson

Fully agree with Rocketsfan.

These transmission issues are more than just a glitch. This transmission was not ready for prime time and so far software "workarounds" have not made the affected transmissions comparable with the swapped-out transmission or the 2016 transmission.

The transmission has gone from just plain bad in affected 2015 models to acceptable (but certainly not good) in the 2016. The 2016 is still plagued with "glitches" and just poor design.

The "rolling stop" glitch persists in the 2016 model. And sloppy, slow downshifts persist. The second is a by product of the transmission having to sequential downshift and going from 9-4 or 8-4 just takes way too long. The latest update for the MDX apparently made a change to let the transmission skip a gear or two in downshifts, but I can find nothing that states this change has been made for the TLX.

Acura has been pretty moronic dealing with the problem. Denials, half-truths, etc. I tild my ACR I was plenty willing to work with them. I told them I was even willing to beta-test software versions. No response.

I figure I ate about 5-6k to get from a bad transmission to an acceptable transmission.

And Honda/Acura continues to deny issue. Complete tone deafness.

- A ten time Honda/Acura buyer, now a former Honda/Acura buyer

rgpolson

https://www.facebook.com/ZFAftermarketUSCAN

Another avenue to voice displeasure with this transmission.

50 bucks says this "remanufactured" ZF 9spd is out of a TLX.